The Impossible Presidency of Joe Biden

DUSTIN GARZA: It is hard to see the first 15 months of Biden’s presidency as anything but a failure. Biden has facilitated a messy exit from Afghanistan, his domestic agenda has stalled, and now inflation rocks the U.S. economy. Biden’s approval rating sits at an abysmal 41%, the second lowest next to Trump since national polling has existed. His unpopularity could tank the already small chances of Democrats maintaining control of the Senate and House in the upcoming 2022 midterms. However, it is hard to imagine things going differently for any other Democratic president. Biden’s presidency has been riddled with no win scenarios, difficult roadblocks, and inherited problems from previous administrations. 

Biden’s presidency began on a positive note. Two months into his presidency, Biden helped to pass the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill. It represented a leftward shift from Biden, an aggressive economic stimulus bill to meet the crisis at hand. It also united Democrats, who passed the bill despite a narrow majority. However, this victory was short-lived. 

The next big domestic push would be the Build Back Better Act, an ambitious spending bill that worked to fight climate change, provide free universal preschool and increase paid leave, among other things. While the bill passed the house, the cracks began to show as Senate Democrats were divided on the bill. 

To be more specific, two senators broke from Democrats to express their opposition to the Build Back Better Act. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema quickly became household names for robbing Democrats of their narrow majority in the Senate. Republicans could not dream up a better blockade to Biden’s agenda. Neither senator would propose specific revisions, instead making vague assertions of fiscal responsibility. However, it is also possible the massive campaign donations from Republican donors may have swayed their vote. When exacerbated leadership asked them to describe a bill they would vote for, no such description came. 

President Biden’s career has been built on compromise and centrism, making him the perfect politician for dealing with a fractured party. However, Senator Manchin proved to be impossible to work with. After lengthy negotiations and many compromises, Manchin ultimately withdrew support for his own proposed bill, showing Manchin had no interest in supporting the policy initiatives of the President. The Build Back Better Act was dead, and what seemed to be a razor thin margin in the Senate proved to be wider than it seemed. 

On foreign policy, Biden was criticized for his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. While Biden  supported the invasion of Afghanistan while in the Senate, it was of course President Bush that decided to invade. President Biden inherited an impossible situation, even if it did not seem like it at the time– Keeping troops in the country was deeply unpopular, and there had been promises to withdraw since the Obama administration. 

The withdrawal of troops was ultimately messy, and criticized by many. However, it was clear that withdrawal was necessary. What could President Biden have done differently? 

The Afghanistan Papers released by the Washington Post in 2019 indicated that the war was a massive failure. The United States did not understand the complex economic and political problems of Afghanistan. The U.S. government had no clear strategy, and wasted massive resources in a hopeless endeavor. Virtually every form of a U.S. exit would be disastrous for Afghanistan, as the U.S. had done nothing to solve its underlying problems. 

While it was clear the Afghan government would not hold, the Taliban’s shockingly fast takeover of Kabul was something few people predicted. President Biden got almost no credit for his rollback of a deeply unpopular war effort, as the news was instead dominated by violence and human rights abuses. A complicated situation with no good options went in the worst way possible for President Biden. 

One valid criticism of the withdrawal is that many Afghan allies who risked their lives to help the U.S. were left behind. The process of getting local allies to the U.S. is a broken system, and many people stay in dangerous regions longer than promised. The Biden administration could have used executive power to temporarily streamlined the process to relocate Afghans. 

However, the resulting Taliban resurgence is the unfortunate result of failed U.S. foreign policy that began long before Biden took office. The initial chaos of the evacuation will stick in the minds of many voters, but it’s important to note that the U.S. adapted quickly and was able to rescue over 100,000 people in one of the biggest airlifts in U.S. history. 

The biggest criticism levied against President Biden as we head into the midterms is inflation. There are many factors that have led to our current economic situation, with a few that have consensus among most economists. 

Likely the biggest driver of current inflation is the supply chain issues affecting the country. The pandemic prompted the shutdowns of industries across the world, leading to worker shortages and low raw materials. While this was not a problem early in the pandemic when there was lower consumer demand, demand has skyrocketed as lockdowns have been lifted. This has led to shortages in many products. 

While the Biden administration has made supply chains a key issue, the problem is for the most part out of his control. The issue is happening all over the world, and in the U.S. the problem is a lack of workers. Unfortunately there is no way for Biden to just create new workers. Global supply chains are unlikely to get better in the future, and unfortunately there is very little that Biden can do about that. 

One commodity that has represented inflation is gas prices. President Biden announced a ban on Russian fossil imports after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to a spike in oil prices. This move was championed by Republicans and Democrats alike, however Republicans have been critical of the resulting higher gas prices, blaming Biden. This criticism is a bad faith move to score political points– it’s not possible to have it both ways. It is essential for the U.S. to punish Russia for the war in Ukraine, and an unfortunate byproduct of aggressive economic sanctions is higher gas prices. 

Biden’s roadblocks stretch far beyond these issues. Political polarization has torn the country apart, to the point where a centrist president has no hope of getting Republican votes on any of his policies. The face of the Republican party, Donald Trump, says Biden has stolen the presidency in a fraudulent election. President Biden has had to work to restore our foreign credibility, as President Trump spent his time in office getting closer with dictators and alienating our important allies. This comes at a time when autocracies like Russia and China are becoming more powerful, and we need our allies more than ever. The effects of a global pandemic are still being felt across the world, straining economies, global supply chains, healthcare systems, and government administrations. The war in Ukraine has created a delicate international situation that could end in nuclear war. 

In the middle of absolute turmoil in the United States is President Joe Biden, the head of the U.S. government. Biden is far from perfect. However, he is doing the best he can during one of the most difficult periods in U.S. history.

Dustin Garza is a Sophomore in the College studying Government.